MusicWatch
Oregon Repertory Singers Finding Light 50th Season Portland Oregon

MusicWatch Weekly: What (else) is going on?

Last week we talked all about how everyone should be making albums right now, and hopefully you all nodded your heads and muttered, “hell yeah!”

MusicWatch Monthly: Sour grapes

Let’s talk about the part of the music industry most directly impacted by The Troubles: the shuttered venues where we no longer gather and share musical ecstasy. But let’s be honest…

MusicWatch Weekly: Virtual Classical

Oregon musical performances may be suspended, but Oregon music plays on. Oregon classical musicians aren’t letting a little thing like a deadly pandemic and total cancellation of live performances stop them from bringing the sounds. Tonight, Friday May 8, at 10 pm,

MusicWatch Monthly: Mayday!

Strikes, unions, mega-corporations and the unpaid labors of love (with a tip of the hat to Bandcamp).

Photo: IATSE Local 28 Schnitz Crew. Courtesy of Charles Noble.

MusicWatch Weekly: The Apocalypse will be livestreamed

First of all, how are you? Eating enough? Staying inside and entertained? Called your friends and/or family lately? Good. Let’s start by collectively admitting that we’re Not Doing Alright. It’s been a busy two weeks since last we spoke, dear reader: schools

MusicWatch Weekly: Stay home!

Bad news, everyone! No, it’s not quite the end of the world. But, yes, shows are being canceled.

Roselit Bone

MusicWatch Monthly: American mestizaje

Defining “American”: Caroline Shaw, nyckelharpa and hardanger fiddle, Carnatic voice & violin, harps & drums, American gothick.

MusicWatch Weekly: Federale February

Normally we like to contain all our monthly previews in one tidy column. But since February starts this weekend, we’d like to tell you all about the first stretch of Februarial concerts now–and we’ll tell you about the rest of the month

MusicWatch Weekly: The fanfare zone

Tonight, tonight, tonight! Your busy music editor has to miss a bunch of cool stuff tonight, dear reader: I’ll be schlepping gongs and playing reyong with Gamelan Wahyu Dari Langit, opening for Wet Fruit at Mississippi Studios. If you followed our adventures

Neil Peart

MusicWatch Weekly: Farewell to the king

In which we bid adieu to Neil Peart and comfort ourselves with winey classical marimba, saturnalian psalms, and an operatic sistah.

Prototype of 45th Parallel's 'Les Boreades' performance space, designed by Brad Johnson and Glowbox. Photo courtesy of 45th Parallel.

MusicWatch Monthly: Second winter descends

Oregon has two winters as well as two summers. We’ve just wrapped up First Winter: the time when it hasn’t gotten too terribly cold and miserable, holiday cheer is in the air, and everybody’s all excited for the solstice and the new

MusicWatch Holidays: Auld lang syne

New Year’s Eve, like Death, is the great equalizer. We all celebrate the solstice-adjacent holidays differently–Christmas, Kwanzaa, Yule, Festivus, Hogswatch, and so on–but those of us who follow the Gregorian calendar all come to the end of 2019 at more or less

Tony Starlight. Photo by Dave Degroot.

MusicWatch Holidays: Naughty and nice

Ho ho ho! Oregon First Winter is fully upon us: the snow and ice and seasonal depression haven’t hit in full force yet, but it’s finally cold and rainy enough to talk about holiday music. Let’s get started with an old favorite:

Brooklyn trio Moon Hooch exhibit by Justin Hautbois. Photo courtesy of the band.

MusicWatch Semi-Monthly: Unholy daze

Bah, humbug! It’s too early for Christmas music, don’t you think? Just because December is upon us, with its flakey promises of snow, doesn’t mean there isn’t a nice pile of early unholiday presents waiting. We’ve got a good dozen or two

MusicWatch Weekly: The magic is in the middle

There are a handful of things that make a city’s musical culture feel complete. You need several symphony orchestras and large choirs, and they all have to be pretty damn good. You also need several smaller choral and instrumental ensembles overlapping with

Marilyn Keller with PJCE in 'From Maxville to Vanport.' Photo by Kimmie Fadem.

MusicWatch Weekly: Big and small

What’s up? Big bands, big choirs, chamber classical, and hybrid music from Indonesia and the British Isles.

MusicWatch Halloween III: The Unveiling

The world is already a haunted house. Killer clowns, mercenary robots, dystopian surveillance states, wildfires galore–what do you need a haunted house for? Instead, go lurk in the shadows with some dark music and costumed fun. There are dozens of tribute shows

MusicWatch Weekly: Dress up in metal

The present author normally adheres to a strict “no promoting your own shows” policy, but since I spent a month telling you all about band camp in Bali, I feel it’s only fair to let you know that the results of that

MusicWatch Weekly: A wider net

We stumble upon a Hall of Fame inductee, learn about joiking and konnakol, and hear from the audients.

MusicWatch Weekly: Second summer chills out

Happy Indonesian Independence Day! Seventy-four years ago today, Indonesia declared its independence from the Netherlands after three centuries of Dutch colonialism (I’ll bet you thought they were always just about tulips and weed). To celebrate, here’s a little video (if you can’t

Ryan Thorn as The Officer and Martin Bakari as The Visitor in Portland Opera's new production of Philip Glass's In the Penal Colony. Photo by Cory Weaver.

MusicWatch Weekly: Happy accidents

Allow me to get personal for a moment. You, my dear readers, know that I’m involved in this vibrant local music scene I’ve been writing about every week for the last three years. As a student at Portland State University, I walk

Harpist and composer Sage Fisher. Photo by Matt Hook.

MusicWatch Weekly: Hot and cold running summer

Portland summers have a little something for everyone. If you like your summers dry, hot, and aggressive, you can easily get your fill of blinding, baking, oppressively sweaty sunpocalypse. If you like your summers bitter, cloudy, soggy, and unseasonably cold—well, you’ll get

MusicWatch Weekly: Flutes and strings and weirdos

Chamber Music Northwest seems a lot quieter since the clarinet circus left town. After last week’s brouhaha—a wide swath of concerts featuring upwards of a hundred clarinets—the audiences at Thursday night’s Copland/Shaw concert and today’s New@Noon felt hushed, rapt, attentively relaxed in

MusicWatch Monthly: Too many notes

La Finta GiardinieraJuly 12-27, Newmark TheaterIn The Penal ColonyJuly 26-August 10, Hampton Opera Center It’s oddly appropriate that Portland Opera is closing its season with summer performances of Mozart and Philip Glass. Both composers are that rare breed: equally adept at performing

Singers Zachary Lenox, Hannah Penn, and Vanessa Isiguen, and basset horn players Todd Kuhn, James Shields, and Richard Hawkins perform Mozart at CMNW. Photo by Tom Emerson.

MusicWatch Weekly: clarinets cut loose!

“Good afternoon! I’m David Shifrin, and I play the clarinet!” A big roomful of laughing clarinetists goes “woooo!” and welcomes the Chamber Music Northwest Artistic Director to Portland State University’s Lincoln Performance Hall for the first of the festival’s five New@Noon concerts.

MusicWatch Monthly: Radioactive glowing disk returns to Oregon!

Caution: Radioactive glowing disk has returned to Oregon’s skies! Remember your sunscreen! Remember your sunscreen! Message repeats. Five weeks and one day There’s an old zen saying: you should meditate 20 minutes every day unless you’re too busy, in which case you

MusicWatch Monthly: the darkling buds of May

There’s an old Oregon saying: “April showers bring May showers.” Our famously persnickety springs tend to veer from warm noon-times of glorious blooming sunshine to those long desperate afternoons of deep drizzling gloom that have our S.A.D. souls begging the gods, “when

Triangle Productions Perfect Arrangement Portland Oregon
Oregon Repertory Singers Finding Light 50th Season Portland Oregon
Portland Playhouse Passing Strange Portland Oregon
Literary Arts Oregon Book Awards Portland Center Stage at the Armory Portland Oregon
Imago Theatre Carol Triffle Mission Gibbons Portland Oregon
Bonnie Bronson 2024 Fellow Wendy Red Star Reed College Reception Kaul Auditorium Foyer Portland Oregon
City of Hillsboro Walters Cultural Arts Center Tony Furtado Hillsboro Oregon
Kalakendra Indian Classical Instrumental Music First Congregational Church Portland Oregon
Portland Center Stage at the Armory Nassim Portland Oregon
Maryhill Museum of Art Goldendale Washington
Portland State University College of the Arts
Golden Road Arts Grey Raven Gallery Near the Reser Beaverton Oregon
Pacific Maritime Heritage Center Prosperity of the Sea Lincoln County Historical Society Newport Oregon Coast
PassinArt Theatre and Portland Playhouse present Yohen Brunish Theatre Portland Oregon
Northwest Dance Project Sarah Slipper Newmark Theatre Portland Oregon
Newport Performance and Visual Arts Centers Newport Oregon Coast
Portland Art Museum Virtual Sneakers to Cutting Edge Kicks Portland Oregon
High Desert Museum Sasquatch Central Oregon
Oregon Cultural Trust donate
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